WHITE PAPER
PROACTIVE VS. REACTIVE HIRING: THE
TOP 10 REASONS WHY PROACTIVE HIRING SAVES TIME AND MONEY
INTRODUCTION
“There is a science to implementing your sales and marketing strategy and building out
the team necessary to execute
on that strategy. It takes time,
commitment, and forward
thinking. When you delay until
your hiring problem can no
longer be ignored, you lose the
luxury to wait for the best person to grow your business and
the capacity to be objective
about who is the best.”
~ Lisa Sacchetti, CEO of
The Renaissance Network
When companies hire they often do so in response to a problem:
Their pipeline may be too big for their current team to handle;
they need more revenue in the pipeline and more deals closed;
they are losing market share; they are replacing an underperforming member of their team but want to wait to make sure it is the
right choice to start over; or they have a new vacancy which needs
to be filled. Companies, therefore, begin the hiring process when a
problem already exists and needs to be solved in a reactive manner. The Renaissance Network often hears from prospective clients
that they are not yet ready to hire but may be looking to add to
their sales and leadership teams in a few months in response to
one or more of these problems. With our aggressive approach to
hunting, we can uncover candidates at any time to meet our client’s needs; however, had we engaged with our clients sooner, in
a more proactive approach to hiring, many of our clients would
experience fewer of the consequences associated with reactive
hiring. The Renaissance Network is pleased to offer our white paper on:
The Top 10 Reasons Why Proactive Hiring Saves Time and Money
The Renaissance Network, Inc. |One Gateway Center, Suite 814, Newton MA 02458
P: (617) 796-9200 E: [email protected] | www.ren-network.com
THE CONSEQUENCES ASSOCIATED WITH REACTIVE HIRING
When companies hire responsively, they hire in response to a problem their
hiring manager is experiencing in the present—the hiring manager will be
already experiencing some kind of pain within their sales team (vacant positions, unfulfilled quotas, lost market share, etc.). Therefore, by the time a
company makes the decision to hire, they are already experiencing diminished customer relationships, depleted team morale, and most importantly,
lost revenue and pipeline, and will continue to lose time, resources, and
revenue, as they execute their hiring strategy.
Once the hiring company starts their search, companies open themselves
up to a variety of problems within their hiring process—all of which cost
them more time and more lost revenue. First the company will post their
job; then they will run incoming candidates through their hiring process (or
take the necessary time associated to hunt the best candidate to build their
business), then they will close a candidate who will give 2 weeks notice. As a
result, an additional 6-8 weeks will be lost to close their search with an aggressive approach to complete their search. By the time a new hire comes
on board, has adjusted to the company, and has developed a strong pipeline, months may pass before the new hire is truly making an impact on the
hiring manager’s team, particularly dependent traditional sales calendar
and the typical sales cycle for your products within the Education space and
for your products. As a result of the responsive hiring process, a company
costs itself valuable time and lost revenue.
To calculate your own lost revenue, please request The Renaissance
Network’s Sales Opportunity Calculator.
TOP 10 REASONS
WHY YOU
SHOULD EMPLOY
PROACTIVE HIRING AT YOUR
COMPANY
In contrast, proactive hiring allows you to preemptively put a plan in place
for developing a stronger sales team before the hiring manager experience
a problem or the problem has made a deep impact on your revenue.
Companies proactively hiring can put strategy in place for their hiring
process, develop the competencies necessary to be a successful addition
to the sales team prior to starting their hiring process, and reduce their
search times, the consequences associated with reactive hiring, and
revenue loss. By anticipating future needs, companies which employ
proactive hiring will be able to reduce the risks associated with an
underperforming sales team.
The Renaissance Network, Inc. |One Gateway Center, Suite 814, Newton MA 02458
P: (617) 796-9200 E: [email protected] | www.ren-network.com
CONTINUED
1. Reduces Customer Fall-Out: With a vacancy on your team, or a sales person
who is failing to build relationships with your customers, customers will look
to your competitors who are offering them the customer service and experience they desire. The longer you wait to hire, the more time you give for
your customers to reach out to your competitors. Proactive hiring allows
you to reduce customer fall out by making the decision to hire and following
through with the hiring process before your customers make the switch.
2. Enables You to Capitalize on Hot Trends and New Funding in a Changing Market: With a proactive approach to hiring, companies can evaluate current
trends in the market, determine opportunities for expansion based on market trends, and make new hires appropriate or capitalizing on hot trends
within the Education space before heir competitors.
3. Decreases Your Search Time: By working proactively, companies can anticipate their hiring needs and define the requirements for the position in advance to jump start the hiring process. By working proactively and making
the decision early in the process before your pain is felt, teams can work
quickly and efficiently evaluate talent, be selective during the hiring process,
and close the best sales person for their needs.
4. Decreases Distraction for The Hiring Manager: Hiring is time and energy consuming, and can be even more so for the inexperienced hiring manager.
Making a decision to hire or not can be a distraction in an of itself; however,
the time needed to hunt candidates, create an interview schedule, conduct
interviews, close a candidate, and finally train a new hire can be a great distraction for the hiring manager away from their regular day-to-day business.
In a proactive approach, the hiring manager can quickly and efficiently solve
a hiring problem and decrease the time necessary to focus on and make a
hire, allowing the on fact, we, at The Renaissance Network, also employ behavioral-based interviews. Behavioral-based interviews elicit historic facts
from candidates to help us determine if a candidate has been able to
achieve success equivalent to what the new role will require.
5. Invigorates Your Sales Team: Companies looking to proactively hire can take
advantage of the market and beat their competitors to market by making
smart, systematic adjustments, to beat their competitors to market. Proactive hiring invigorates your team, as they know their employers want to
grow their business.
The Renaissance Network, Inc. |One Gateway Center, Suite 814, Newton MA 02458
P: (617) 796-9200 E: [email protected] | www.ren-network.com
CONTINUED
6. Allows You to Hunt The Right Candidate for Your Needs: While you may receive some great candidates by posting a job on your corporate page or on
job boards, often the best candidates are not actively looking for a job; instead, they are busy closing business for your competitors and are outside
of your network. These candidates, who we call “hidden” candidates, must
be hunted for you by us.
7. Gives You the Time to Thoroughly Evaluate All Potential Candidates: By proactively hiring, companies can take the time necessary to evaluate their potential candidates and uncover their true competencies. The Renaissance Network sends our candidates through a three-step interview process, including
chronological and behavioral based interviews and a sales assessment, all
conducted on separate days by multiple evaluators. We spread these interviews out over the course of a few days to gauge personality, fact-check
their statements, and evaluate the true characteristics of our candidates.
Each step must be given the appropriate time to make the right determinations and must be conducted by specialists who know how to ask the appropriate questions to uncover the best candidates.
8. Increases Your Hiring Success: By hiring proactively, companies will be able to
consider more candidates and not miss out on candidates who may move
on to other opportunities if you delay. Companies that are proactively looking to grow their business with new talent will have the reputation that they
care about building their company and are constantly working to improve
their teams. Companies consistently looking to improve their business are
attractive to the top talent in the Education space, and proactive approach
to hiring will allow you to partner with the best search team to selectively
hunt the best candidates directly for you.
9. Allows You to Capitalize on a New Hire’s Contacts Quickly: In a proactive approach to hiring, companies have the capacity to bring on new hires quickly
and go after their new hire’s contacts. When a candidate comes on board,
their previous employer, who may not have known their employee was taking a new opportunity, will be on their heels, and have to now find someone
new to fill the void on their team in a responsive hiring approach. Your company can take advantage of this information gathered from the candidate
can help you predict if he or she will be successful in the new role. When
behavioral-based questions not only ask about historic data but also how
The Renaissance Network, Inc. |One Gateway Center, Suite 814, Newton MA 02458
P: (617) 796-9200 E: [email protected] | www.ren-network.com
CONTINUED
those outcomes were achieved, one can use a candidate’s response and
how the candidate presents his or her response to determine if candidates have the competencies necessary for success time lapse by going
after your new hire’s contacts quickly before your competitor has a
chance to rebuild their team.
10. Allows You to Beat Competitors to Market: Hiring proactively allows for
the natural adjustment time it takes for a new hire to build their pipeline. Opportunity costs associated with waiting will affect your business
over the long term; by limiting ramp-up time, proactively hiring companies can see a market impact in a quicker, more efficient timeframe, and
beat their competitors to market.
WHY USE THE
RENAISSANCE
NETWORK
AS YOUR
TRUSTED
SEARCH
PARTNER
As the leading Strategic Search Partner for Education and Technology,
The Renaissance Network partners with our clients over the long term to
help them grow their business; because we only work in the Education and
Technology space, we have the capacity to gauge the market and help guide
our clients to make the best hiring decisions possible. Even when a company
works proactively to hire, they still need the services of a Strategic Search
Partner A) to best understand the market and B) to uncover candidates outside of their reach.
When we work with our clients we put time and resources into understanding our clients needs and the market they are selling into prior to executing
a search. This allows us to offer our guidance and expertise developing and
executing a sales strategy. With 17 years of experience in this niche market,
we help our clients develop an approach to hiring based with a solid sales
strategy as the foundation for their growth.
Once we have helped our clients develop their sales strategy, we then
utilize our resources to uncover the best candidates to build our clients’
businesses. We aggressively hunt top talent outside of the reach of our
clients network; we send potential candidates through a multi-step interview process, utilizing the experience and knowledge of the industry to determine candidate’s true competencies; and then we help our clients close
their top candidate, all the while allowing our clients to continue focusing
on their business rather than putting their time and resources towards an
The Renaissance Network, Inc. |One Gateway Center, Suite 814, Newton MA 02458
P: (617) 796-9200 E: [email protected] | www.ren-network.com
CONTINUED
internal search process. By partnering with The Renaissance Network, we
help our clients limit the distraction of a search for their hiring managers,
while we work to uncover and give you access to the best talent for your
needs.
THE RENAISSANCE NETWORK’S CORPORATE FACTS
The Renaissance Network is an award-winning search firm, specialized in uncovering and hunting
over-achieving sales and leadership talent in the Education and Technology markets. We strategize
with our clients on their sales, marketing, and leadership teams’ organization and compensation plans,
we analyze the competencies necessary to be successful contributors to our clients’ organizations, and
then we aggressively hunt top talent within the industry. With a combination of efficient methodologies,
knowledgeable team members, and the largest network of contacts within Education, The Renaissance
Network offers its clients a trusted search partner, decreased search time, increased hiring success,
confidence in hiring, improved internal interview effectiveness, and a rapid market impact.

One of the first six search firms nationwide fully accredited by the National Association
of Personnel Services (NAPS)

Ranked as one of the top 25 recruiting firms in the Northeast by the Boston Business Journal

Member of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA)

Member of the SIIA Education Division Membership Committee

President, Lisa Sacchetti, is a member of the Software & Information Industry division, a member
of the SIIA Education Division Membership Committee, and was named was named one of Boston
Business Journal’s 40 under 40 executives for 2008
CONTACT US
Lisa Sacchetti, President
The Renaissance Network, Inc.
One Gateway Center, Suite 814, Newton, MA 02458
P: (617) 796-9200 E: [email protected] | www.ren-network.com